An offer from the Central Information Office of Autonomous Women's Shelters: A nationwide search for women's shelters and safe houses is possible via map and search query. All information is available in several languages.
Every woman affected by violence and her children must have safe, quick, and unbureaucratic access to protection and support in a women's shelter/safe house. Violence takes many forms; physical violence is often only the (visible) tip of an escalating violence. The nationwide women's shelter search provides a good, but not yet complete, overview of all women's shelters/safe houses across Germany.
Violence against mothers and children:
Violence against mothers has a direct impact on children. Often, they themselves are directly affected by the violence. Together with their mothers, they need protection from the violence they have experienced and also require a safe space and time to process what they have been through. Women's shelters are therefore also children's shelters. Often, women's shelters have dedicated staff members for the children who take the time to address the needs and wishes of the girls and boys. When women affected by violence move into a women's shelter/safe house with their children, questions of custody and visitation rights often need to be resolved. The safety and protection of the women and children must be the top priority.
The Central Information Office of Autonomous Women's Shelters was founded in 1980. Since then, it has been actively committed to combating violence against women and improving the situation of women affected by violence and their children.
- The ZIF is politically and religiously independent, has a feminist and anti-racist self-image and works in a partisan manner for women and their children affected by violence.
- The ZIF is financed exclusively through membership fees from the women's shelter associations organized within it and through donations.
- The ZIF coordinates and moderates the political and professional-conceptual exchange among the autonomous women's shelters.
- The ZIF is the voice of the autonomous women's shelters at the federal political level and, on their behalf, writes statements and press releases on the topics of violence against women, violence against girls and boys, and the situation of women's shelters.
- ZIF is networked nationally and internationally.
Women's shelter funding:
Women's shelters/safe houses are funded very differently across Germany. Protection from violence only works if every woman affected by violence and her children has safe, quick, and unbureaucratic access to protection and support in a women's shelter/safe house. A woman's income situation must not determine her eligibility for admission to a women's shelter/safe house.